News from Seattle's Office of Economic Development

Mobile Small Business Consulting Heading to Seattle Neighborhoods

Earl Lancaster, owner of Earl’s Cuts and Styles consults with Jen Hughes, Director of Training and Special Projects at Ventures

The Office of Economic Development (OED) will host mobile small business consulting sessions throughout Seattle. We will bring our technical assistance partners to different neighborhoods for 1-on-1 business consulting.

The pilot program launched May 24th in the Central Area with 10 small businesses on 23rd Avenue as an effort to continue our collaboration with businesses negatively impacted by construction. Events were held on May, 24 May 25 at Black Dot @ Union. The businesses that signed up received consulting by Ventures in collaboration with the Central Area Collaborative and Seattle University. Yonas Seifu and Mikel Davila from OED worked with the businesses ahead of their mobile small business consulting appointments to ensure they were able to get the most out of their time with the experts. Experts are able to assist with a number of issues, depending on the individual needs of the small business. They can offer marketing recommendations, merchandising suggestions, help with navigating government and permitting and help connect businesses to low interest financing, and more

Staff is working with our partners in various neighborhoods to identify businesses that would benefit from these services.

OED will host small business consulting in the following neighborhoods: